333 
advice of the astronomer Sosigenes who, born 
in Egypt, could not be ignorant of the division 
of the ecliptic used in the east. There is how- 
ever no need "f- of raising doubts respecting the 
high antiquity of the sign of the Balance, to 
weaken the unfounded hypothesis, according to 
which a temple of Upper Egypt was built more 
than four thousand years before our sera. 
Struck with the analogy that exists between 
the denominations of the nacshatras, and those 
of several signs of the zodiac of Thibet and of 
Greece, I have examined whether the constella- 
tions, which bear the same name, correspond to 
the same points of the heavens : and I find they 
do not, whether we suppose, that the first 
nacshatra, known under the denomination of” 
the Horse, is the Horse of the Thibetan zodiac, 
and consequently the Lion of the Greek zodiac ; 
or whether we admit with Sir W. Jones and Mr. 
Colebrooke that the commencement of the 
nacshatras is placed in the sign- of the Ram, 
which is the Dog of the Thibetan zodiac. This 
last hypothesis would seem probable only if tlie 
lunar houses were reckoned contrary to the order 
^ Biittman, in Ideler, Hist. Urjt. p. 372 — 378. 
f See a learned treatise by Visconti, inserted in the trans- 
lation of Herodotus by Larcher (2d ed.), Tom, 2, p. 576 j 
and Visconti, Miscell. di Museo Pio — Cleraentino, Tom. 6, 
p. 25, note, c. 
I Asialh^ Researches, Vol. 9, p. 118, 
